Stanley Kirinde:

Unique portrait artist

Today, extremely individualistic art is almost the rule among serious independent painters. On the other hand, art that is popularly termed 'academic' and is described by its advocates as 'traditional' - and sometimes as that which alone is 'sane' or 'competent' or 'healthy' - is indeed far from any seriously maintained academic tradition. In fact, the genuine academic painter who is able to express himself fully within a great tradition and with complete understanding of its possibilities and limitations, is a very rare bird indeed, and a fortunate one. Such a painter was Stanley Kirinde. Stanley Kirinde was born on 24 April, 1930 at a time when Sri Lanka was still part of the British Empire. His birth certificate showed his full name as Sarathchandra Maddumabandara Wickremasinghe Kirinde, but he was given an English name after the fashion of the time. His classical Sinhala name was shortened to 'Stanley' which stuck with him for the rest of his life.

In 1938 at the age of eight Kirinde was sent to Trinity College, Kandy. Trinity was intended as a Christian School, but it had been moulded by its most famous principal Rev. A.G. Fraser, one of the foremost educationist of the day, to blend the best of the West with culture of the East. Kirinde grew up in an atmosphere where wealthy, social position, caste, creed and race counted for little. In the classroom, dormitories and playing fields all were equal. Kirinde took to Trinity at once. It was a pleasant happy place. It was here that Kirinde had his first art lessons. His art teacher was Harry Hardy who recognised Kirinde's exceptional talent and left him to develop on his own.

While at the University of Peradeniya, he claimed the best glorious years he spent enjoying the scenic splendour of the lush green paddy fields, the mountains, orchids rich in foliage and flowers that enhanced the natural beauty of the landscape. His work contain ample evidence of his love for nature. Although Kirinde was attracted by the beauty and decoration of medieval painting, he found it too flat and dimensional.

Stanley Kirinde

He believed that an artist had to be able to master the basic skills of drawing before he could go forward. Only then could he afford to experiment and try out various techniques. Art did not and could not exist on its own. It was a product of the world around. This was a lesson that the aspiring artist absorbed early in life. Despite the enormous impact of Da Vinci and Michael Angelo had on him, Kirinde remained very much his own firmly grounded with techniques and styles that he absorbed to express and evoke his own society.

This is what is unique about him. Kirinde was extremely good in portrait painting as well as landscapes. He did not use many colours in his portraits. With just a few colours, blue, white and black he captured character, appearance, and expressions. The result was one of his finest paintings.

In 1983 Kirinde had his first ever one man exhibition. It was a very important event in Kirinde's carrier as an artist. The exhibition covered the whole of Kirinde's work. The largest number of paintings featured the Jataka tales. The exhibition brought him widespread recognition in art circles and established himself as a major artist. In addition to his illustrations of Buddhist themes and texts, Kirinde was commissioned to execute paintings for several Christian churches and organisations.

Although his strokes are fast and sweeping, almost nothing escaped his eye. His skill is such that he captured every detail. His control is even more pronounced where he used pen and ink, one of the most demanding mediums to draw.

As an artist Kirinde has lived through some of the most savage and brutal events in Sri Lanka's history. The 1980s in particular were full of violence, chaos and death. But there is very little evidence of this in most of his work. When asked why his reply was, "Fundamentally art is about life and not about enhancing death." Art is one way to overcome and avoid disaster, it is about how you lead your life and not how you terminate life.

Stanley Kirinde's paintings adorned the walls of the President's House in (Colombo and Kandy) the Foreign Ministry, the military academy and several government and private institutions. His work has been exhibited in Bangladesh, Japan, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Some of them have also been purchased by several foreign museums, the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan, Singapore Art Museum and Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Many of his paintings are in the private collection all around the world. One of them is in the possession of the Prince of Wales. In 2000 Kirinde was invited to paint the portrait of the President of India, one of the foreigners ever to be asked to paint an Indian Head of State.

Stanley Kirinde as a natural painter, presented us with an image of the country in all its varied form, as it once was and as it is today.

His brush fell out of his hand on February 13, 2009.